The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for separating liquid and solid materials from one another, especially for the removal or extraction of juice from agricultural products, in particular from fruit, which apparatus is of the type comprising a press container mounted to be rotatable about a horizontal axis.
A typical construction of such type apparatus has been illustrated and disclosed in German patent publication No. 2,459,097. With this state-of-the-art equipment there is provided a piston-cylinder unit wherein the mash is exposed to a mechanical action which can influence the quality of the liquid which is pressed-out therefrom. This is especially also the case with worm or screw presses. The comminuting action also can cause release of undesired substances from the residues. But even in the case of mechanical presses of a different construction what has been stated above is also valid.
Apart from juice extracting equipment employing a press container (the last expression is used in its broadest sense), there have also become known to the art those using a drainage or drip container. While with such containers, even if they are rotatably mounted, there do not arise any deleterious mechanical effects, nonetheless what occurs with such equipment is simply a pre-dejuicing in that the juice predominantly flows-off under the action of the forces of gravity, and thus, the mash only partially has the juice extracted therefrom, for instance up to about 50 percent. Hence, it is necessary to thereafter resort to the use of presses, inherently resulting in having to accept all of their drawbacks.